For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.
The following is an excerpt from Building Your Financial Fortress in 52 Days: The Lessons of Nehemiah. This post is from Day 37.
What a loser. Nehemiah will never get ahead by missing these opportunities of a lifetime. His mother and father will not be able to say of him, “My son is doing so very well. He is the governor of a big city.” No, their son-bragging would sound like this, “Our son is in ministry, worked for the king and was doing very well and now he is helping people. But he will do well again, someday; he’s a good boy and such a hard worker. And he’s so nice too.” You see the difference. We are judged, measured, sized up, “atta–boyed,” and bragged upon by how well we do. Nehemiah was filthy rich. Well, not exactly filthy, more like righteously rich. Somehow that just has a better ring to it.
Deep down inside, most of us believe that if you do not do well—the money, the earthly possessions, the land—you really are not successful. But what if God’s idea of success is the polar opposite of the world’s view? Nehemiah believed this with all of his heart. No other explanation could be given for the changes that took place in his heart and the actions that followed.
He came face-to-face with history repeating itself regarding slavery. He abolished slavery. He shared with a generosity that could not be repaid. He embraced giving without any possibility of being repaid and led by example to his own financial detriment. He then made the first public law, which was, interestingly, a financial law. The law stated that anything taken from a debtor would be given back to him or her, including houses, land, crops, and money plus the interest charged to them.
Not just giving them back what was held as collateral? No. Everything. Including the interest charged. Rewarding the debtors? It might seem so, but it was wiser than that. Debts were forgiven, second chances had been distributed, and a new law not to borrow was in place.
What was the penalty for a violation of this law? May God shake out of His house and possession every person that did not obey this law. Remarkably, not only those who were in debt favored such sudden economic freedom, but also everyone praised God for this oath, which they took.
Is it fair that those who borrowed did not have to repay? No. Was it right that those who loaned got stuck without their principle or any interest? No. Was this a way to fundraise? No. Was this a way to lift people? Oh, yes! When the source of our hope and survival is revealed and the result is something or someone other than God, we are forced to choose sides. Remain with the god who cannot see our pain or hear our cries for help, or upgrade to the God who is far more powerful than 1 percent per month—the amount they were charging each other for interest on money in Nehemiah’s day.
Nehemiah knew he had been called to this royal position for such a time as this. Okay, so he is not Esther, who, roughly thirty years earlier, heard those exact words from her cousin Mordecai, just before she performed the most courageous act of her life.
The evidence of a life that was completely convinced that Heaven was its home and people were its Master’s love made Nehemiah a prisoner to the truth—land had no stronghold. He invested there, not here. He demonstrated the life Jesus Christ himself showcased and had recorded in duplicate form by both the former tax collector Levy in Matthew 6:19-34 and retold by Dr. Luke in his account from Luke 12:32-34.
Do not be afraid little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselve that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Nehemiah showed the people by example how to choose true riches and take hold of the life that is truly life. Now it is your turn to invest heavily in where you are going to spend eternity. Right before Joshua died at the age of one hundred, he challenged the people in the same way that years earlier he had challenged them. They must choose one of their earthly gods or Almighty God who had brought them out of slavery, kept them safe, and given them land, food, and freedom. They made a covenant to follow the one true God, and put a stone next to an oak to remind them daily of their sober commitment.
Today, get a rock or a paperweight and set it up on a shelf or a table and say to God that you will put your complete financial trust in Him, and, as in Joshua’s day, say it out loud so that the rock or paperweight hears you. It may sound a little odd, but why not have a constant reminder in your home that stares at you every day as a reminder of the commitment you made and Who you made it to?
Beautifully, deeply written with great insights! Thank you so much for this Godly perspective!
Posted by: Terri Layne | March 19, 2012 at 10:43 AM